I
came across the below editorial that was published in HK Headline newspaper
today and felt it was really worthy of sharing because it describes the current
‘sad state’ of the HK music industry perfectly!
As
a long-time follower of the HK music industry, I’m personally very disappointed
and saddened at how badly the industry has deteriorated over the past 12-13
years. As I’ve been saying for the past decade or so,
the ‘direction’ of the HK music industry seems to have shifted over the years –
instead of being focused on making good music, everyone is focused on making
money, becoming popular, and getting awards.
Sure,
one can argue that part of the problem is that today’s singers lack the
distinctive talent that was a key attribute of many of the ‘superstar’ singers
who came out of the 80s/early 90s (and the 70s to some extent) generations. Yes, that is true and I will be the first to
agree with this ‘argument’ – BUT it’s not the ONLY reason. Of course, many of the previous generation
singers had distinctive voices and singing skills / styles that set them apart
from others and made them ‘easily recognizable’ as soon as they opened their
mouths to sing (who here isn’t able to recognize the voices of Roman Tam, Anita
Mui, Leslie Cheung, etc) – but that doesn’t mean these artists didn’t put effort
into their singing...just because they had the benefit of being endowed with
awesome talent and great voices doesn’t mean that they could just ‘cut corners’
and let their talent alone bring them ‘fame and fortune’. In addition to sharing good work ethics, one
thing that many of the previous generation’s artists shared is a true passion
for making good music – basically “ making music for music’s sake” (as opposed
to today’s mantra of “making music for money’s sake”).
In
the current era where ‘shortcuts’ such as lip-syncing and using technology to ‘enhance’
album recordings (so that singers sound ‘perfect’ when recording a CD) are so
prevalent (to the point of being ‘commonplace’), true singers who have the
ability / skill to sing LIVE and still sound ‘perfect’ are extremely hard to
come by – in fact, I honestly feel that these types of TRUE SINGERS are already
reaching the point of ‘extinction’!
Ok,
before I really start offending people, I should probably get off my soapbox
and just leave my commentary as is….but before I do that, just one last comment
I wanted to make about the lesson learned from the last paragraph in the below
editorial: instead of placing all the
blame for the HK music industry’s downfall on illegal pirating of music, the
industry (including not just singers and songwriters, but also the record
companies and multi-media outlets such as radio and TV stations as well) should
really look internally first and understand where the problems truly lie….if
there is to be any hope for the future of the HK music industry, everyone needs
to be going in the same direction and sincerely working for the ‘greater good’
of the industry. If the current HK music
industry could display even 80% of the UNITY and SINCERITY that the industry
was known for back in the 70s/80s/early 90s, then perhaps the industry can turn
things around and ‘flourish’ again....(holding out hope that this can happen in
my lifetime!)
.---.
HK Headline Editorial – ‘Brought to the point of
tears’ [opinion piece on RTHK Top Ten
Gold Song Awards]
Source: HKHeadline News
Translation:
llwy12
What
is a ‘Gold Song 35th Anniversary Honorary Award’? What is the difference [between that award]
and the ‘Golden Needle’ award? A few nights ago, Jacky Cheung (張學友) just received the
former [Honorary Award] -- 12 years ago,
he already received the latter [Golden Needle award]. Actually, what award he gets doesn’t matter --
because being able to hear Jacky sing live is already a blessing.
Thinking
back to the HK music industry of the 80s and 90s, there were tons of great
Cantonese songs – the competition at the music awards got to the point where it
was too difficult to just pick 10 songs because there were just too many, too
many, too many. Back then, despite
having more award-worthy songs than awards, the organizers of the awards shows refused
to budge on their ‘only choose 10’ methodology.
Nowadays,
trying to pick 10 sings to reward at the yearly award ceremonies is an even
more difficult feat because, well, there just aren’t enough ‘good songs’ worthy
of choosing. Ironically though, this
year, RTHK ‘insisted’ that due to the ‘fierce competition’, they had ‘no choice’
but to expand the awards from ‘Top 10’ to ‘Top 12’. Other than responding to this ‘news’ with “Oh…”, I really can’t think of anything else to say.
The
[RTHK award show] night pretty much consisted of a bunch of singers ‘hea’
singing [TN: meaning ‘singing
badly/lazily’]: Eason Chan’s (陳奕迅) performance of ‘Heavy
Taste’ (重口味) was horrible to listen
to – it was pretty much Eason’s worst ‘live’ performance! Oh and Raymond Lam (林峰) – may I ask what he
was doing jumping around back and forth on the stage? And that ‘Nice’ phrase is really starting to
make people feel uneasy.
Fortunately,
Hong Kong still has Jacky Cheung. His
near flawless performance brought those who listened [to him sing] to the point
of tears.
Please
stop saying that all the illegal downloading of music on the internet caused
the HK music industry to ‘deteriorate’ to its current state! If the quality of today’s singers and songs
could reach even 80% of the level back then [80s and 90s], I’m sure you and I
would readily go out and spend money buying albums.
.*****.
Chinese version:
頭條娛論:
聽出眼淚來
2013-01-22
何謂「金曲35周年榮譽大獎」？同「金針獎」有何分別？張學友剛拿了前者，而12年前亦拿了後者，其實拿甚麼獎也無所謂，因可以聽學友唱Live已是恩賜。
想當年，八、九十年代超班廣東歌多的是，競爭的情況是去到唔知點揀年終十大歌曲，因為太多太多太多，但那些年，頒獎禮依然企硬只選十大，但家陣要將廣東歌納入年終十大更難上加難，因為好難揀得落手，但港台竟指因競爭激烈而將年終十大變十二大，除了「哦」，想不到更好的回應。
整晚，聽了一堆歌手在Hea唱，陳奕迅那首《重口味》相當難聽，是Eason最不知所謂的Live，還有林，請問他在台上彈來彈去做甚麼？那句「Nice」是多麼的令人不安，幸好，香港還有張學友。
那近乎完美的表現是會令人聽出眼淚來，不要再說網上非法下載令香港樂壇一落千丈，如歌手或歌曲質素可以有當年的八成，你同我都一定會去買碟。
想當年，八、九十年代超班廣東歌多的是，競爭的情況是去到唔知點揀年終十大歌曲，因為太多太多太多，但那些年，頒獎禮依然企硬只選十大，但家陣要將廣東歌納入年終十大更難上加難，因為好難揀得落手，但港台竟指因競爭激烈而將年終十大變十二大，除了「哦」，想不到更好的回應。
整晚，聽了一堆歌手在Hea唱，陳奕迅那首《重口味》相當難聽，是Eason最不知所謂的Live，還有林，請問他在台上彈來彈去做甚麼？那句「Nice」是多麼的令人不安，幸好，香港還有張學友。
那近乎完美的表現是會令人聽出眼淚來，不要再說網上非法下載令香港樂壇一落千丈，如歌手或歌曲質素可以有當年的八成，你同我都一定會去買碟。
